I write to you once again to encourage you to continue to make mistakes and interact with foreigners.
Since I first wrote, my son has now been here for 3 years. At first, his introduction to Japanese was to be totally immersed into a Japanese classroom. However, this proved to be unwise since he had no reinforcement, confirmation, or feedback of the language he was learning.
These three criteria are essential in any language learning process.
To remedy this and to encourage my son who was becoming very frustrated and disheartened by the language barrier, which was making it impossible for him to make friends, I got him a tutor - actually three!
Once Ismael got the reinforcement and feedback he needed on the language he “thought he was hearing and using”, his skills in Japanese flourished. In other words, he would be speaking Japanese with the students here, but often he could not comprehend certain expressions or colloquialisms, making the whole conversation and interaction for him stressful.
However, when he would ask his tutor what so-and-so meant, or how do you say so-and-so, then FULL comprehension would come and he would make proper use of that new expression in his next conversation. Doing this not only increased his fluency but also boosted his confidence in the new language he was using. This confidence in turn enabled and encouraged him to be bolder in his next interaction or conversation with the Japanese students here.
This phenomenon will also happen to you once you make that leap into marching forward with your international friendships. Not only will you learn the proper use of standard words and expressions by your improper use of the language, you will also learn the idiosyncrasies of idioms, collocations, etc. as you interact more with the foreign students.
Furthermore, Ismael’s confidence in using and fluency into the Japanese language has increased so much, due mainly to trial and error, that he now has no fear of mistakes he makes in Japanese. In fact, there are times where he makes a fool of himself, but he knows THAT IS OKAY, for no one makes fun of him for trying.
He has also finally figured out that magic formula of making mistakes only increases your successes. In fact, Ismael has become so fluent in Japanese that now he has to translate for me Osaka-ben!!
So I encourage you all, MAKE MISTAKES, BE BOLD in your interactions with the foreigners on campus, and USE your English.
Also if you see my son, Ismael, on campus, make sure you stop and have a conversation with him or play some ball!